China Accelerates Its Economic Push Across Central Asia
India Hopes To Take Over Operation Of Venezuelan Oil Fields From PDVSA Eurasianet is an independent news organization that covers news from and about the South Caucasus and Central Asia, providing on-the-ground reporting and critical perspectives on… Uzbekistan, one of Central Asia’s economic drivers, is experiencing a significant expansion of Chinese economic influence.
Bilateral trade during the first half of 2026 grew to$7.7 billion, according to official Uzbek government data, making China by far Uzbekistan’s largest trade partner.
Beijing’s official statistics, meanwhile, put the number even higher – at$8.9 billion.
Russia, Uzbekistan’s erstwhile overlord, lags far behind with bilateral trade turnover amounting to$5.8 billion.
The number of Chinese-Uzbek joint ventures, along with wholly owned Chinese companies, grew to6,060during H1 2026, many of them involved in mining, industrial production, energy and other key sectors.
The growth rate for Chinese businesses in Uzbekistan is accelerating: the number stood at2,241in 2022, then grew to3,357by 2024.
Since then, the total has almost doubled. Russia, which was the leader in terms of the number of businesses in Uzbekistan as recently as 2023, now only has3,454of its companies operating in the Central Asian state.
Tourism by Chinese citizens is also booming. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Uzbekistan in H1 2026 reached223,479.
For context, for all of 2025, the number was278,900, and just74,300the previous year.
Since Uzbekistan and China introduced a visa-free regime for short-term visits in mid-2025, all such visits are registered by Uzbekistan as tourism, although many Chinese guests come for business purposes, such as meetings, negotiations and exploratory missions.
Thus the rapidly growing number of visitors also augurs further growth in economic ties.
Kazakhstan and China are deepening financialintegration, with plans to connect their payment systems and expand the use of digital financial technologies.
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